Oh Canada?

The Montreal Canadiens have a serious crisis communications situation. On Feb. 10, Ryan O’Byrne and Tom Kostopoulos were arrested in Tampa, Florida. O’Byrne arrested for theft of a woman’s purse and Kostopoulos for interfering with police. The Habs will need to address this issue quickly and contain the damage to their team’s organization. The situation is not easy to handle. The team needs to stand by the players, but it can’t look as if their support the alleged behaviour.

I would suggest the team simply acknowledge the situation. They can’t ignore it. Beyond that, they need to say that while the allegations are serious, the team supports the two players and trust that legal system will clarify the situation. The team also needs to state that any internal reaction will wait until they know whether or not the players are guilty. Once that is determined, the media will be notified of necessary information. That’s how I’d handle it, but how the Habs handle it will be interesting to see.